Let’s Go Anywhere
Seattle, WA
We are setting off to start our our new life in Melbourne, Australia. With us on this adventure is as little as we could imagine bringing to a new home halfway around the world, . Two bags for each of us to last until our half container pod of remaining essentials (and some not so) are set to arrive 4-6 weeks after we do.
We bid adieu to Alley 24, our home for nearly four years, tossed our two bags into the Subaru for the last time and drove up to Ballard to crash in our friend’s 4’ by 7’ TV room. This will be our cozy accommodations for four nights until our flight on the 20th. Sometime in that span we’ll be selling our trusty steed and further shedding some last possessions that missed the boat but can’t be justified in the checked luggage.
Now that we are unemployed, transient couch surfers the enormity of the move must be faced. No more second guessing the decision, no more dreamy discussions. Now just real, live logistics – an AirBnB, work visas, money transfers, international shipping manifestos, packing re-packing our luggage.
We’ll be there soon and once we arrive we’ll do our best to document our adventure here so feel free to follow along as we share the highlights of our life Down Under.
Arrival in Melbourne
Melbourne, Vic
A full twenty-four hours after leaving Seattle – via our scheduled Los Angeles stop and our unscheduled Sydney one – we arrived in Melbourne. Immigration and customs took a matter of minutes, either a nod to Australian efficiency or, possibly, apathy. Our journey to the taxi stand took us outside and into the heat, a very welcome 36C (97F) heat. As our cab headed into the city our fatigue and exhaustion melted away as our new home came into view out of the car windows. We had made it. Our new lives here were a blank canvass waiting for us to fill them with memories of a lifetime. This blew a strong wind into our sails; ready we were to see what this continent has to offer.
After a few wrong turns down some tricky one-way alleys, our driver found our AirBNB flat (apartment) and set us free. We dumped our luggage, changed into our bathers (swimsuits) and headed down to the St. Kilda beach to showcase the whitest skin in all of Oz (Australia), perhaps the Southern Hemisphere. In the mid-arvo (afternoon),our hunger pangs drove us from the beach to Fitzroy Street for a snack. We cashed in our gift certificate to Milk the Cow, a wine and cheese shop near the beach. All manner of fancy spreads and cuts were brought our way; all consumed in short order. We retired for our first night down under, but not before catching a few matches of The Tennis (The Australian Open) on The Tele (TV).
Settling In
Melbourne, Vic
On our first full day, we dove right into the culture with a cup of morning tea out on our deck. The cool, marine breeze of the early morning soon gave way to summer heat. We took a long walk along the Bay Trail down to Point Ormond. The way back was warm; the heat, the sweat, the sun on our skin all so wonderful after the last few months in wet and cool Pacific Northwest. We live here now.
The Tennis
Melbourne, Vic
For three weeks in late January / early February all eyes – in the tennis world at least – are on Melbourne and the Australian Open. Or, more affectionately referred to here on the ground as The Tennis . The cultural immersion program we had set for ourselves dictate that we attend, and that we did. A gorgeous, sunny Saturday with temperatures near 30C (86F), we arrived early, as did the rest of the city. Tickets to the two main courts were sold out so we settled for ground passes. A ground pass allows access to all other venues but main courts, including the very large Hisense Arena. Our lacking of planning did mean we’d miss Venus Williams’ match; however, our early did permit a showing of Serena practicing from up close, so not all was lost. It should not go unmentioned that the lines to enter the cultural events – the beer and wine gardens – stretched on to the far reaches of the grounds as Melbourne’s 20-somethings shook off last night’s hangover queued up for another run at it. No prom or gala in America had anything on this scene.
Serena’s practice session sated our patriotic hunger; next on to Hisense and some actual matches. Prior to the opening 11am match seats were plentiful. As rookies do, we made a rookie mistake and sat in the glaring sun, amazed at why such good seats were available when less optimal ones (shaded) were taken. A few hours later, the place was packed and we were sweating through our clothes, the full power of antipodal sun baking our northern bodies. We endured two hours of roasting to see the Spaniard, Muguruza down Bacsinszky of Switzerland in a hard fought women’s singles match. A welcome relief as the shade enveloped us for match two. Here, the 8th ranked Montenegro-Canadian Milos Raonic used his 220+ km/h serve to breeze by the scrappy Benjamin Becker of Germany.
The grounds were throbbing full at this point and, needing food and drink, we called it a day and left for home. Our hunger and thirst pulled us into a pit stop at the Royal Croquet Club’s (RCC) off-site Aussie Open extravaganza…basically a massive beer garden with food trucks, croquet courts and a DJ spinning house music. Attendance was minimal – it was early – but judging by the size of the beer stands it would become a righteous rave later in the evening. Still jet lagged and a good decade older than the likely demographic, we could not muster the resolve to go on a day long drinking spree and, after a delicious snack and two Hahn Lights made our way home. Cultural immersion complete.
Market Day
Melbourne, Vic
The Queen Victoria Market is both a tourist trap full of fake Australian Outback hats and crocodile wallets as well as fully functional grocery store and mercantile. Where else can you buy a pallet of kangaroo pelts, mystery crystals, footie gear, toothpaste, antique collectibles and a dozen duck eggs all in the same place? There is truly something for everyone. We bought none of the above, instead spending most our time investigating the widest variety of cured meats we’d ever seen.
[Erin] Being from Seattle, my expectations of coffee are high. Melbourne’s reputation as having a world class coffee culture proceeds it. In the three days we’ve been here, I’ve found it to be as promised and have been been gleefully sampling from a variety of new favorite, local cafes. Market Lane Coffee has a corner shop in the Queen Vic Market and since I wasn’t really sure what a flat white or a long black would end up as, I ordered a cappuccino like a pro, right up until I tried to pay for a $4 coffee with two 20 cent coins. (For some reason the smaller coins are larger amounts here). After Googling “long black” I decided it would be the closest to my Americano order back home and I can avoid looking like a complete dumbass next time. I am also adding this bit of information to save you all from Googling long black in the workplace.
With Market bags in hand and caffeine needs met, we took the tram back to our temporary home in St. Kilda for a sunny lunch on our patio. At some point we will stop acting like this is a vacation and get on with the details of finding a house, but not quite yet…
’Stralia Day
Melbourne, Vic
Australia Day celebrates the 1788 landing of the British First Fleet in the Sydney Cove. We expected something like an Australian Fourth of July extravaganza. On account of souring public opinion over the ensuing treatment of the Aboriginal peoples, the reality of the holiday is something closer to a modest Columbus Day barbecue. As luck so had it, an old classmate of Erin’s had recently moved to Melbourne and had extended to us an invite to a afternoon party out in Wattle Park, east of the city. On the (not to scale) Melbourne tram map, it looked close enough. Ignorant of the speed, or lack thereof, of the tram system, we jumped aboard the 16 east then north through St. Kilda East, Balacava, Caulfield North, Malvern, Kooyong and then Hawthorn where we transferred to the 70 where upon we crawled through Hawthorn East, Camberwell, Surrey Hills and finally into Box Hill South, home to the Park of Wattle. Along the way we were overtaken by many a cyclist, scooter, rickshaw, jitney, wheelchair, pram, stray dog; really anything wheeled or anyone particularly fleet of foot was bound to pass us eventually.
We arrived eventually, the beer that we purchased earlier now fully the temperature of the ambient air. The small fete was enjoyable, a good chance to meet some local people and test our new land’s ability to through a bash. Marooned out here in the burbs, the only economically sensible thing to do was to ride the same slow pony back to town…at least we knew what to expect this time. We rewarded ourselves for our arduous travels with some of the world’s greatest frozen yogurt, Yo-Chi. To walk off these excess calories, we ambled down to the beach to watch the sun dip below the gentle waves of Port Phillip Bay.
Back to Work
University of Melbourne, Vic
The fun had to end eventually, I was down here for a job after all. Mind you I wasn’t headed to the salt mines or anything resembling difficult physical labor, but coming back to a schedule and being responsible to an employer was a unwelcome change nonetheless.
I arrived to the brand new Melbourne School of Design (MSD) building and my 9:30 appointment to find that my name was not in the system. As a result, I I could not be granted my ID card, login information, email, etc. Really anything that would permit me to do any actual work, administrative or otherwise. I was, however, awarded my complimentary kitchen set (with a tea mug of my favorite color). This is the warm welcome I had been expecting.
Additionally, due to some scheduling issues, there is a squatter in my current office for the next few weeks. I have been set up with with a temporary space in a large group meeting-type room (with adequate space for my tea set). It is comfortable enough and my office mates are quite, albiet a bit weird.
I was starting to wonder if I actually had a job here, but in wandering the halls I did locate a door with my name on it…so I guess that is a good sign. Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll be able to commence my tenure at the University. For now, I’m just a visitor stuck in a room with mannequins busy balancing his spoon on his nose while shotgunning lukewarm, free tea. Oh yeah, and every time I leave the room to go to the bathroom I need to place a chair in the door lest it close behind me and lock me out.
by Andy Krause
andy@andykrause.com